A Schizophrenic Yahoo

In April I paused my two other chess blogs...

• It's Later Than You Think [WCCB]
• 2025 FCGST, Paris [C960]

...and now it's time to do the same here. As I've always said, 'The first rule of chess is to have fun!'. When it's no longer so much fun, it's time to move on...

***

On the left is the composite image I originally created for this post. It shows the talking points I intended to develop for the post.

For an explanation of the data, see the previous Yahoos post: Language, Math, Music, and Yahoos (April 2025).

Yahoo Sources Are Back!

It's been more than a year since we bid a not-so-fond adieu to the Yahoos in RIP Yahoos (January 2024). As I explained at the time,

After three years the Google Yahoos also ran out of steam: Yahoos Set a New Low (December 2023; 'So many problems, so little time.'). It's time to let them sleep in peace.

If you're not sure what Yahoos are, see the footnote. The problem at the time was that we could no longer see from where all the Yahoos hailed. The first sign of trouble appeared in Missing Yahoos (November 2023). There I explained,

For the first time in the Yahoo series, Google News stopped including the names of all sources in its list of top stories, identifying those sources only with an icon, often unreadable.

Now we've come full circle. Google News has restored the names of all sources and I can create a small chart like the first one shown below.

The chart shows only four sources that had more than two stories each, where the 'Missing Yahoos' post had eight such sources. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's first have some basic stats.

For the current month, Google offered 99 chess stories. Of those, 52 stories were from those four sources with more than two stories, meaning that 47 sources had a single story.

As we saw in every other previous post that counted the number of stories for each source, Chess.com topped the list. This month the world's top chess site had more than ten times as many stories as no.2 on the list, FIDE.

I don't remember exactly when Google started mentioning the writer's name for some stories, but it began as a trickle and has since become a flood. The second chart above shows the number of stories by eight Chess.com writers, many of whom have been mentioned before on this blog.

Only one other writer had more than two stories: Leonard Barden with one story for the Financial Times and one for The Guardian. Of the 56 stories not from Chess.com, 30 had no writer listed for the story, so along with Barden, 24 writers had their byline attached to a story.

At this point I should start listing chess stories that I found particularly interesting, but I'm running out of time for this post. Let's have one of Barden's stories, both of which were on the same topic.

• 2025-03-21: BBC Two chess show keeps 710,000 viewers despite rocky opening week (theguardian.com; Leonard Barden) • 'Chess Masters: The Endgame received some negative reviews for its 10 March debut, watched by 890,000, but fears of a second-week meltdown proved overblown'

Maybe I'll come back to this post with more stories for March, but lately my track record for follow-ups hasn't been very good. Can old leopards brighten their spots?

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

March 1975 & 2000 'On the Cover'

Last month's post about American chess 50 and 25 years ago, February 1975 & 2000 'On the Cover' (February 2025), was all about the American Open. This month's post, somewhat more diverse, is a mixture of American and international chess.

Left: '?'
Right: 'George Koltanowski 1903-2000'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Robert Huebner, winner of the Houston International, with his trophy which, as Lynne Babcock writes, is "custom made, gold plated and does everything a chess trophy should -- nothing." Photo by Fred Bunch. Story [inside].

The 'Story [inside]' was titled 'Another USCF Success: The Houston International 1974' by Edmar Mednis. It started,

The Houston International Chess Tournament, fourth in the series of international events organized and sponsored by the USCF, was by far the most successful one for American chess, and it ended 1974 on a number of truly positive notes.

The first seven paragraphs of the report were about the organization of the tournament and its norm possibilities for American players seeking a FIDE title. It then continued,

And now back to us, the players -- the absolute requirement for any tournament. West German GM Robert Huebner was the clear favorite and fulfilled the high expectations by finishing first. Some of the wins did not come easily, yet his high class usually showed through. Yugoslav GM Aleksandar Matanovic is known the world over as editor-in-chief of the Informants and the new Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. At Houston he also demonstrated his fine playing ability. He was the only one never to have a dubious position and deservedly finished undefeated and in second place. My third place and GM result [by Mednis] was fashioned in a rather steady way [...]

Huebner died at the beginning of 2025. See Wikipedia's Robert Huebner (wikipedia.org; '6 November 1948 – 5 January 2025'), for his biography.

For the last year or so, we've been tracking the monthly CL column 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg, as it provided a monthly summary of the evolving situation about a 'match that never was', i.e. 1975 Fischer forfeits to Karpov (m-w.com). In March we learned a number of details about the organization of the forthcoming match, e.g.

John Prentice, Deputy President of FIDE, announced in Amsterdam on February 17 that President Euwe's choice for the site of the 1975 World Championship Match was Manila. [...]

There is far too much detail in the report for this post and the topic would be more appropriate for my WCC blog.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

George Koltanowski, the Dean of American Chess, had thousands of favorite chess stories, and everyone he met, left with a favorite story about George. I invite you to share your reminiscences about this great ambassador for chess with other Chess Life readers. That way, as we continue to promote the game to which he devoted his life, we can add to the legacy he left behind. George could charm the feathers off a jaybird, if that's what it took to get a chess program started, or to secure a donation or a sponsor. And we definitely want others to benefit from his expertise.

Send your thoughts to the USCF, in care of the Editor, or use our e-mail address: cleditor@uschess.org.

We wish to thank the San Francisco Chronicle and photographer Chris Stewart for providing our cover this month. It was taken in May of 1999. You can check out Steve Rubenstein's tribute to George Koltanowski at www.sfgate.com.

A two page appreciation by CL Assistant Editor Peter Kurzdorfer and Editor Glenn Petersen gave more details about Koltanowski's career. I'm sure we'll be seeing more about 'the Dean of American Chess' in future 'On the Cover' posts. The 'Dean' was also featured on the right side of November 1971 & 1996 'On the Cover' (November 2021).

Quantum Chess Theory

Quantum chess is one of those intriguing ideas that appear on the CFAA radar every so often. The last time it featured as video of the month was Quantum Chess and AI (September 2020). Here's a more down-to-earth angle.

How Does Quantum Chess Work? (5:57) • '[Published on] Feb 15, 2025'

The description said,

Today, I show a new update to chess! This game features quantum chess with superposition, entanglement, and the observer effect! [...] It's a combination of chess in Ohio, Minecraft Block Battles in Chess, Anarchy Chess, ChatGPT Chess, Top Chess, Gotham Chess, Chess 2, 5D Chess, Open World Chess, and more! If you enjoy the chess memes YouTube shorts, like and subscribe!

That's all very nice, but I didn't understand the video, even after watching it twice. The missing bit in that description ('[...]') pointed to quantumrealmgames.com/play. Why not just go there and play for myself?

That also turned out to be easier said than done, because the site slowed my oldest PC -- the same PC that I use to write these blog posts -- to a crawl. It happened twice, on two different days, so I'm guessing that my PC and the site are not compatible.

For my next attempt, I'll publish this post, access the site from my newest PC, and add any fresh observations to the post. In the meantime, here are the 'HOW TO PLAY' basic instructions as copied from that Quantum Realm Games site.

Standard Move • Select the piece you want to move, then click the target square.

Split Move • Select the piece you want to move, then hold-click the first target, drag to the second, and release.

Merge Move • Hold-click the first piece, drag to the second piece, and release. Then select merge target.

Back in a jiffy...

December 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

What do the Chess Life issues of December 1974 and December 1999 have in common? Yes, they are obviously the next in the 'On the Cover' series last seen in November 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (November 2024). On top of that, they were both dominated by rating lists.

Left: '?' (also 'Special Yearbook Issue!')
Right: '1999... 2000... and still going strong!'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Anatoly Karpov: if he beats Korchnoi, and if Fischer and FIDE cannot resolve their differences, he will be World Champion in 1975. Match games continue [inside].

Karpov's previous cover appearance was May 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (May 2024; 'Anatoly Karpov and Tigran Petrosian, winners of their quarterfinal candidates matches.') Everyone who knows anything about modern chess history knows what happened in 1975. I suppose we'll see the story unfold in next year's 'On the Cover' posts.

The December 1974 CL&R was 108 pages. Of those, 70 were allocated to the '1975 USCF Yearbook', and of those, 52 were allocated to the rating list. The Karpov - Korchnoi match, the inspiration for the cover, was a single page, with only raw game scores for games 11-21.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

No, we will not enter into the argument as to when the millennium arrives. We do knows that the end of December 31, 1999, will usher in a new year. Appropriately, the babe (2000) is playing the decisive Rg7+ against the old man (1999). The artist, Jose Angel Pardo, of Orlando, Florida, notes "That was the winning move I played in the first game I was ever able to beat my father."

Whether you consider it to be the millennium or just the beginning of a new year, one thing is clear: Chess is still going strong. Of our 86,000 members, fully 74,000 played at least one rated game of chess between October 1998 and October 1999. We've separated the Annual Rating List from the rest of the magazine and included a few items we hope you will find useful throughout the new year. And that includes a comprehensive listing of all changes to the Official Rules of Chess, 4th Edition.

Again we see a rating list. Of the 128 pages in the December 1999 CL, 49 were allocated to the list. Interspersed throughout the list were a number of interviews by Jerry Hanken, including one with 13-year old Lawrence Trent for the World Open and another with 8-year old David Howell. The same Howell, now a GM, commentated for FIDE on the recent World Championship match between Ding Liren and Gukesh.

There was more to the 'On the Cover' introduction for the same December CL. It continued,

Transition is never easy or particularly palatable for many. The Executive Board, in closed session, passed an enigmatic resolution to terminate the contract of Michael Cavallo as our Executive Director. I say enigmatic not as a judgement as much as a statement of fact.

After four paragraphs on the same subject I still didn't have a clue why this was newsworthy for the general CL readership. There is a ton of relevant information in the rgcp archive at groups.google.com, e.g. search?q=Cavallo, but who has the time to plow through it? For a previous cover illustration by Jose Angel Pardo, see September 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (September 2024).

World Class Asian Players

The previous post in the weekly AI comics series investigated the burning question Why Are 'Comics' Rarely Funny? (November 2024). This post explores the World Championship match currently being played in Singapore, last seen on this blog in World Championship Yahoos 2024 (November 2024).

'Ding Liren and Gukesh play chess in Singapore.'
AI Comic Factory

Not very good is it? Although there are two Asian players, one of them maybe Chinese, there is nothing obviously related to Singapore. I tried a number of different styles -- Franco-Belgian, Modern American, ... -- and they all had the same flaws. Some of them showed two (probably) Chinese players in each of the four panels.

What went wrong? I suspect that the source dataset used to generate the images is older than the emergence of Gukesh as a recognizable name in chess, i.e. there are not many images of him. I also suspect that the keyword 'Singapore' might have skewed the software to over-represent Chinese players. I know the software understands the characteristics of (Asian sub-continent) Indians. See, for example, Real Chess Villages (March 2024).

For my first experiment on the name to face recognition of World Champions, see Rogues' Gallery (December 2023). There I wrote,

The following composite image is assembled from 18 times '[Name] plays chess', where '[Name]' is one of the World Champions.

In that image the likeness of Ding Liren is acceptable, if only so-so. It is better than some of the other, historical World Champions, which is not setting the bar very high. Maybe I'll come back to this in a future post, but there are other fish to fry in AI comics.

November 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

For the second month in a row, after October 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (October 2024), top U.S. tournaments dominated the covers of American chess magazines both 50 and 25 years ago. Artwork was also a recurring theme.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Knights, one and all...'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Pal Benko (left) and Vlastimil Hort, co-winners of the U.S. Open. Story and games [inside]. Photos by Burt Hochberg.

'Story and games [inside]' came after three articles on the 1975 World Championship. The first article was about the Karpov - Korchnoi match, the final match of that cycle's Candidate matches; see 1973-75 Candidates Matches (m-w.com), for a record of all the matches that took place during that cycle. The final match became a de-facto title match when Fischer forfeited his title in 1975. The introduction to the article said,

The Finals match in the 1974 Candidates series began in Moscow September 10. Aften ten games, the score was Karpov 2, Korchnoi 0. To win the match a player must score five victories or be in the lead after 24 games; if the score is even after 24 games, a coin toss (or other chance drawing) will decide the contest. Here are the first ten games.

The second article was the monthly column 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg. It started,

World Champion Bobby Fischer, defending the match rules he favors, comments: "The whole idea is to make sure the players draw blood by winning games, and the spectators get their money's worth." The accuracy of his judgment is borne out by the current Karpov-Korchnoi match in Moscow, in which after 14 games the score remains 2-0 in Karpov's favor.

The third article was the monthly column 'Larry Evans on Chess', subtitled, 'The World Champion Speaks'. It started with a letter from Bobby Fischer and continued for two pages. The whole Fischer forfeit saga deserves to be documented from the USCF's point of view as recorded in the pages of Chess Life. Has this ever been done?

Only after the three articles on the World Championship do we find 'The U.S. Open: An Interesting Disappointment' by Burt Hochberg. It immediately took a dark tone, starting,

In this scientific age of ours, we are obsessed with numbers. Record-breaking is becoming a common concern of our daily lives. In chess, the establishment of records, to the point of pointlessness, already occupies the thoughts of a great many intelligent people.

After a few more paragraphs, Hochberg revealed the reason for the 'Disappointment'.

If we are convinced that record-making and record-breaking are legitimate concerns because of their incentive value, then we must also take it upon ourselves to explain why a standing record was not broken -- or even met -- despite every expectation that it would be far exceeded. To descend from the metaphysical to the specific: why did the 1973 U.S. Open in Chicago (a city of about 3.5 million) attract almost 50% more entries than the 1974 U.S. Open in New York (a city of about 8 million)?

A second article, 'New York's U.S. Open' by Bill Goichberg, explained the circumstances for the disappointment. It started,

After 35 years. the U.S. Open was finally held in New York. It was not an event I will fondly remember. Not only were entries far below what most people expected, but the out-of-town turnout was particularly poor. The host hotel had been guaranteed 100 sleeping rooms, and when the actual count proved to be far lower, we were socked with a whopping rental charge of $5,000.

Heavy financial losses were suffered by both USCF and the co-sponsoring Continental Chess Association. jeopardizing the latter's nationwide tournament promotion program. CCA has been losing money for the past year, and will have to cut back in many areas unless attendance suddenly recovers or enough voluntary donors can be found.

Chess historians accept that the 1970s Fischer boom started in 1972, but when did it end? It appears that 1973-74 was the start of a long slide to pre-1972 levels.

What happened to our two cover GMs? They each won $1.675 (which would be more than $10.000 today). Benko was last seen in October 1969 'On the Cover' (October 2019), although his compositions made the cover in both the January 1970 & 1995 (January 2020) and January 1972 & 1997 (January 2022) 'On the Cover'. Hort was last seen in June 1969 'On the Cover' (June 2019).

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Dragons or dragon-slayers, depending on your outlook. But they all wind up being Knights of the 64 squares. Huzzah! Huzzah! for our new Interplay champions Boris Gulko, Marcel Martinez, and Anjelina Belakovskaia, and for Gregory Serper (World Open), Alex Yermolinsky (U.S. Open), and Andrei Zaremba and Steven Winer (Denker champions).

And it is that time of year. The call for nominations for the Hall of Fame appears on page 23.

The cover design is by Patrick Kelly of Grand Rapids Michigan.

The first five players were also named in last month's 'On the Cover' introduction for 1999. They were the winners of four tournaments reported inside the November 1999 issue (Gulko and Belakovskaia won their respective sections of the U.S. Championship). Did the Chess Life editors have some trouble deciding what story to feature?

Since the U.S. Open was the featured tournament in the 1974 CL and was also the first of the four tournaments covered in the 1999 CL, let's continue with it here. The article '1999 U.S. Open: The Big Bang' by GM Edmar Mednis started,

The 100th Annual U.S. Open Championship at the luxurious Sands Regency Hotel Casino in Reno was held August 10-19, 1999. It started with a bang and never let up. At the welcoming ceremony in the evening of August 9, the participants were treated to an exhibition by Buckeroo Beau, the reigning world bullwhip champion and award-winning gun slinger and trick roper. For those having quieter interests there was Christa Lynn Jones, the reigning Miss Reno Rodeo. Some 80 people enjoyed the action and sumptuous Western-style barbecue.

How about the bang from the $63,300 prize fund unconditionally guaranteed by the Sands Regency? Truly a record -- just compare with the $22,000 of the 1998 Open! And the bang from the $10,000 first prize and the many bangs from the total of 61 cash prizes.

Bang, bang, bang, bang... The four bangs in that excerpt were followed by six more bangs in the rest of the paragraph. Anyone feel like banging their head against the wall?

The Hochberg report on the 1974 U.S. Open mentioned that there were 549 players. The Mednis report on the 1999 U.S. Open mentioned,

The 338 players at the start did a lot of banging and it became even louder when the busy-persons joined the action at the start of Round 5, bringing the total up to 485.

If 549 players were a disappointment, what can be said about 338/485 players exactly 25 years later? And what happened 25 years after that ... in 2024?

April 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

As I noted last month, in March 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (March 2024), that month was 'the tenth anniversary of the first "On the Cover" post'. Now we start the next ten years of brief, monthly looks at the leading U.S. chess magazine from 50 and 25 years ago.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Alexander Ivanov - Pan American Champion' (also '1999 Yearbook')

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Grandmaster Walter Browne of California, winner of the Hoogover [sic; 'Hoogoven' or 'Hoogovens', see below] tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Games etc. next month. Photo by Nigel Eddis.

A month later the May 1975 CL&R had a report 'Browne Wins at Wijk aan Zee' by Burt Hochberg. It started,

The strong annual tournament sponsored by the Hoogoven steelworks in Wijk aan Zee, Holland, was won this year by American Grandmaster Walter Browne. His eight wins and six draws gave him a convincing 1 1/2 point advantage over second-place Jan Hein Donner, the Dutch grandmaster.

Browne's only loss was to the young Hungarian grandmaster, Andras Adorjan, in the last round when Browne was already assured of undisputed first place. (That was also Adorjan's only win!)

GM Browne's previous cover was May 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (May 2023; 'won the [1973] National Open in Las Vegas'). A couple of pages further in the March 2024 CL&R we see 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg with a paragraph on the rules for the 'semifinals of the 1974 Candidates Matches' (tiebreak: 'a coin toss if the score is tied after 20 games'!). This was followed by a paragraph that started,

The latest in a series of international tournaments hosted by the USCF will be held April 5-19 at the plush new Continental Chess Club in Los Angeles, California. [...] 2nd USCF International in Chicago late last year.

After all these years, I've managed to overlook this series of tournaments. Where are they documented?

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Alexander Ivanov, of Brookline, Massachusetts, won the 1998 Pan American Championship and secured a spot in the FIDE World Championship, a knock-out affair which, as of this writing, is scheduled for August of this year in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I recently covered this event on my World Championship Blog in 1998 Zonals 2.x References (February 2024). The post started, 'In a feature article for the April 1999 issue of Chess Life, GM Ivanov wrote [...]'.

The 'On the Cover' introduction continued with two other stories. The first story was:-

Still no word on a Kasparov - Anyone match, although recent comments by Kasparov (after his victory at Hoogovens) indicate that Alexei Shirov has fallen out of favor with the World Chess Council (WCC), and that Viswanathan Anand (who has already lost one match to Kasparov) is now the frontrunning challenger. Which doesn't sit well with Shirov. [...]

The second story was titled 'Standing on the Terrace'. It started,

A ripple passed through the chess world with the passing of Lazslo [sic; 'Laszlo'] Szabo late last year. And that was followed by a tidal wave, with the loss of Efim Geller. For Americans, however, the darkest monsoon struck on February 4, 1999, when it was announced that Ken Smith had died. We will have articles on all three in future issues of Chess Life, but it is important to say a word or two about the impact Ken Smith had on the development of chess in the United States during the last 30 years. [...]

The name Ken Smith is almost always associated with Chess Digest. This would be a good time to review Smith's contributions to U.S. chess, but I've run out of time for this post. Hopefully later...

Real Yahoos (Sort Of) Spotted Again

Last month we fretted that Yahoo Zombies Want Chess (February 2024). This month they got what they wanted. For the first time since How Many for Carlsen? For Niemann? (December 2022), Yahoo.com delivered chess Yahoos ... two of them ... on consecutive days ... just after the zombies post.

Top: 'Is the United States overestimating China’s power? • Most Americans see China as the biggest threat to the US. But away from headline economic figures, China has a slew of challenges.'
Bottom: 'Speed chess, Soul Cycle, and push-up contests: Saturday Night Live parodies Joe Biden's age • The SNL skit also pokes fun at Biden allies and their claims of extreme abilities. "Behind closed doors, Joe is incredible!"'

For the nitty-gritty details, see the corresponding stories:-

• 2024-03-01: Is the United States overestimating China’s power? (yahoo.com; The Conversation) • 'Which country is the greatest threat to the United States? The answer, according to a large proportion of Americans, is clear: China.' • The story is headed by a large version of the stock photo shown in the Yahoo thumbnail, a red chess King decorated with the Chinese flag towering over a map of the Arctic ocean (the large version also shows Alaska and Canada).
• 2024-03-03: Speed chess, Soul Cycle, and push-up contests: Saturday Night Live parodies Joe Biden's age (ditto; USA Today) • 'Soul Cycle, speed chess and a push-up contest are just a day in the life of Joe Biden in the latest "Saturday Night Live" parody of his age, which added a new wrinkle to the bit - making fun of his supporters' denials that age is an issue.'

The second story didn't include a video of the scene. That means it's time to go rummaging around Youtube. Watch this space.

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are *were* derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

***

Later: Re 'The second story didn't include a video of the scene. That means it's time to go rummaging around Youtube. Watch this space.', I came up empty-handed on Youtube. It seems the SNL library has been moved to PeacockTV.com, where I get the message:-

For other international audiences: Peacock is not yet available in your territory.

The best reference I could find was:-

• 2024-03-03: 'SNL' lampoons Biden's 'behind closed doors' energy (cnn.com) • 'The cold open of "Saturday Night Live" featured Democrats describing the outrageous amounts of energy President Biden exhibits behind closed doors.'

Even if it were 'available in [my] territory', I already have enough subscription streaming services. Watch this space some more?

January 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

A new year means turning the page to the next twelve months of 'On the Cover' posts. This year will mark the tenth anniversary of the series, which started with March 1964 'On the Cover' (March 2014). In the last post for 2023, December 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (December 2023), I noted,

Last month's post about U.S. chess magazines 50 and 25 years ago, November 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (November 2023), had an arty portrait on the right. This month's post has a different sort of art.

This month we return to an 'arty portrait on the right'. More about that after we see the January covers from 50 and 25 years ago.

Left: '?'
Right: 'de Firmian Grabs Third Title'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines (left), presenting a check and winner's trophy to Bent Larsen. The Danish grandmaster has just won the greatest chess tournament ever held in the Asian and Pacific zones. Stories and games next month.

For once, I'm not going to use the 'On the Cover' time machine to preview next month's tournament story. A new column in January 1974, titled 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg, gave sufficient details:-

The great Philippines International Tournament, the most important chess event ever held in Asia and the Pacific area, ended November 6. The significance of the event was highlighted by the ceremonial presence of World Champion Bobby Fischer and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos.

Bent Larsen, the tournament's highest-rated player, won it with 12 1/2 - 2 1/2, losing only to Gligoric. Yugoslavia's most promising young grandmaster, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, was second with 11 1/2, and our own Lubomir Kavalek, one of the world's most active grandmasters recently, scored 11 points to take 3rd place. Other scores: [...] Lombardy won the brilliancy prize for his win against Quinteros. The prize was $1,000! First prize in the tournament was $4,000.

That mention of Fischer and Marcos deserves further exploration, but I'm worried it might lead me down a rabbit hole from which I won't return in time to finish this current post. Maybe later...

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Nick de Firmian won the 1998 U.S. Championship by defeating the defending champion, Joel Benjamin, 2 1/2 - 1 1/2. We again called on portraitist Steven Seward of Cleveland, Ohio, to work his magic for our cover.

Coverage of the championship, the Women's Championship (won by Irina Krush), and the U.S. Senior Championship (won by Arthur Bisguier), will begin next month.

And there we have our connection to the arty portrait of two months ago: November 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (November 2023; 'Steven Seward, a portraitist from Cleveland, Ohio'). That makes three arty covers in a row and there is more to come later in 1999. The cover introduction continued with news about two World Championships.

FIDE UPDATE: De Firmian, Benjamin, and the other semi-finalists, Dmitry Gurevich and Tal Shaked, qualified to participate in the FIDE World Championship, along with Boris Gulko and Sergey Kudrin, both of whom qualified by previous performance or rating; and Alexander Ivanov, who qualified by winning the 1998 Pan American Championship, which was held in Venezuela in October. Gata Kamsky has also been invited (by rating). His participation will hinge on whether or not the finalized dates for the event interfere with his medical studies.

Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk forfeited her match with Jun Xie. China was awarded the bid for the match; Alisa wanted to play at least half of the match in Russia, so she didn't show up at all. Jun Xie, the former women's world champion, will now challenge the current champion, Susan Polgar.

Once again, that news 'deserves further exploration'. I'll put this month's rabbit hole on the follow-up list.

October 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover'

In last month's post about American chess magazines of 50 and 25 years ago -- September 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (September 2023) -- the 1973 side was about the World Championship and the 1998 side was about important American tournaments. For this month's post, the roles are reversed.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Hall of Fame Inducts Milan Vukcevich'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

U.S. Open Champion Norman Weinstein of Massachusetts with his trophy. See [inside] for a complete list of winners. Chicago Tribune photo.

The article inside, titled 'Record U.S. Open in Chicago: Norman Weinstein Wins on Tiebreak' (unsigned), started,

Twenty-two-year-old Norman Weinstein of Allston, Massachusetts, won the title of United States Open Champion by scoring ten points out of a possible twelve in the 778-player tournament held at the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago. August 12-24. He drew his final game with Illinois Champion Craig Chellstorp in 14 moves.

Weinstein, a former Massachusetts Champion who tied for second place in last year's Open, holds a master's degree in mathematics from Brandeis University, but is now a fulltime chessplayer. Four other players also scored ten points, but Weinstein had by far the toughest opposition, facing six of the seven top-ranked players in the tournament. His title was won on tiebreaking points over Grandmaster Walter Browne, International Master Duncan Suttles, Greg DeFotis and Ruben Rodriguez.

Browne, a former representative of Australia, has recently been living in New York as a U.S. citizen, and has just moved to California. [continues with brief discussions of Suttles, DeFotis, and Rodriguez]

Winner Weinstein has his own profile at IM Norman Weinstein (chess.com). In the list of class winners, after 'Expert' and 'Class A', a 'Premier' class had one 'Yasser Seirawan, Washington' as co-winner.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

One of the highlights of the U.S. Open each year is the Awards Luncheon where the newest members of the Hall of Fame are inducted. This year, Milan Vukcevich, the 1998 inductee [for problem composition], also served as the keynote speaker. He and his wife Michelle grace this month's cover. The text of his speech begins [inside]. Cover photograph by Jami L. Anson.

The Kasparov - Shirov World Chess Council (WCC) championship match will not take place in 1998, if indeed it takes place at all. Lack of sponsorship is the stated reason. One quirk, as a result of the terms of the "qualifying" round, is that Kramnik -- who lost to Shirov -- received $200,000. As we go to press, Kasparov is leading Jan Timman in a training match (Euro-Tel), 2.5-0.5, and will probably receive the winner's share of the purse, which is $65,000. Timman would then receive $35,000. And Shirov, by advancing to the title match, receives nothing for beating Kramnik. His reward was to be a percentage of the championship match prize fund. At present, though, he appears to be the unfortunate loser -- without having even pushed a pawn.

Chess Life readers, however, will be the real winners; beginning with next month's issue, Alexei Shirov will author a series of articles for USCF members. Shirov will also be in the country in time to participate in the FIDE World Championship tournament, which begins November 29 and ends December 27. Las Vegas will be the venue; early rounds will take place at various Mirage Resort properties. The final rounds (after most of the 100 participants have been eliminated) will be at the Mirage Resort's newest and most elegant hotel, the Bellagio Casino.

Complete details are a bit sketchy as we go to press, but as plans line up, you can check it out on our website: www.uschess.org/news/world98.html. There is also a toll-free number you can call for airline and hotel package information [inside].

With almost everything here relevant to the World Championship, there is much to expand on. Let's start with a link for Milan Vukcevich (worldchesshof.org; HOF = Hall of Fame). I'll try to come back to the rest in the not-too-distant future.

I Want To Go Squirrel Hunting

In last month's Yahoos post (aka 'chess in the mainstream news'), Top Yahoos: Niemann, WRTC, and Pragg (August 2023), I mentioned,

Two of the stories in Niemann's main block were repeated in the top news, while the third story, not repeated, was the off-the-wall Elon Musk nonsense that I covered last year in It's Not Polytopia (March 2022).

A few days earlier, that same Elon Musk story had appeared as a real Yahoo (appearing in the news feed from Yahoo.com) on its own. These days real Yahoos are so unusual -- the previous sighting was How Many for Carlsen? For Niemann? (December 2022) -- that I felt compelled to record it on this blog.

The title says,

Business • Benzinga // Elon Musk Thinks Chess Is 'Too Simple' -- 'Understandable When All We Had To Play With Were Squirrels And Rocks, But Now We Have ...'

The missing word behind the '...' is 'Computers', as in 'But Now We Have Computers'. After the title we learn,

Tesla Inc. and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is known for his innovation and tendency to question conventions. Last year, he publicly stated his disinterest in the classic board game chess. ... // 3 min read

Here the missing text behind '...' is:-

Musk, who played chess during his childhood, has distanced himself from the strategic game, citing six reasons he finds it "too simple" for his liking. In March 2022, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, "Chess is a simple game. Understandable when all we had to play with were squirrels and rocks, but now we have computers."

Why is Benzinga (followed by Yahoo) picking up on on a remark from almost a year and a half ago? Maybe it was just a slow news day. For the full Yahoo, see Elon Musk Thinks Chess Is 'Too Simple' -- 'Understandable When All We Had' [etc. etc.] (finance.yahoo.com).

The best part of a real Yahoo is the comments section and this particular story earned 551 comments. Those comments plus the six bullets in the story explaining Musk's dislike for chess (e.g. No 1: 'Limited 8-by-8 grid') would be worth another post on the topic, but I can't tackle that just now. This morning I spotted a red squirrel in the back yard and I have a burning desire to throw rocks at it. [NB: No animals were or will be harmed in the making of this post.]

September 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover'

The left side of last month's 'On the Cover' post, August 1973 & 1998 (August 2023) featured Robert Byrne, 'who finished 3rd at the Leningrad Interzonal and thus qualified for the Candidates' Matches'. This month features the winner of the second Interzonal for that cycle. It was the first World Chess Championship cycle to have more than one Interzonal.

Left: '?'
Right: '1998 U.S. CHESSathon' • 'Interplay Junior Championship ... Junior Open ... Cadet Championship ... National Scholastics ... U.S. Amateur Championships ... World Open ... it all begins [inside]!'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Henrique Mecking, winner of the Interzonal in Petropolis, Brazil, in a typical pose. Bulletin [inside], full story next month. Photo by Burt Hochberg.

The bulletin '[inside]' said,

Twenty-one-year-old Henrique Mecking of Brazil triumphed on his home territory, winning the second of the two 1973 Interzonals with an undefeated score of 12.0-5.0. Pre-tournament favorite Lajos Portisch of Hungary suffered a disastrous last-round loss to Soviet Grandmaster Lev Polugaevsky, creating a three-way tie for 2nd-4th places among Yefim Geller, Portisch and Polugaevsky with scores of 11.5-5.5. Since only the top three may advance to the Candidates Matches, a playoff match among the three tied players is necessary to eliminate one of them. The date and site of this playoff is not known at this writing.

Here are the final scores from Petropolis. [...] Bronstein replaced Leonid Stein, who died suddenly a few weeks before the tournament.

For more about the two Interzonals, see:-

• Leningrad, VI, 1973
• Petropolis, Brazil, VII-VIII, 1973

The footnote saying, 'Bronstein replaced Stein', doesn't square with related info on my other pages. More research needed...

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

It almost didn't happen. Having made the decision to not hold a CHESSathon this year, the USCF office was dragged, kicking and screaming, into an organizational nightmare, when one very determined USCF Past President, Denis Barry, decided that there would be a CHESSathon!

Executive Director Mike Cavallo gave Denis the green light, and with less than three months lead time, Denis was able to find a site, secure the cooperation of an entire city (Newark, New Jersey), find local sponsors ("Just One," a division of the Office of the Mayor of Newark, Public Service Electric and Gas [PSE&G]), a state sponsor (New Jersey State Chess Federation) AND he was to convince the majority of the employees of the USCF business office to once again, donate their time and experience to make the CHESSathon a reality.

But that's only the beginning of the story. The rest of it appears [inside]. Our cover shot, from the sixth floor of the PSE&G building, overlooks the PSE&G Plaza, and was taken by Brian Killigrew.

This is the first issue that most youth members, coaches, and parents will receive as the new school year begins. Make the most of it! Our three National Scholastics, the Cadet, the Junior, the Junior Open, the CHESSathon, a bright piece on college chess and scholarships, Chess-in-the-Schools, our youth team in England -- it's all in this issue. Just what the doctor ordered to convince an edgy school board, a doubtful principal, or a curious PTA, to get a chess program started or expanded.

By any standard, that's a long explanation of the month's cover. It raises a number of points that deserve a deeper look, but I've run out of time for now.

***

Later: If ever there was an issue of Chess Life (CL) devoted to scholastic chess, it was for September 1998. The table of contents looked like this:-

p.36 College Chess by Tim Redman
p.38 National High School by Steve Immitt
p.40 National Junior High
p.42 National Elementary
p.44 U.S. Cadet Championship by Anthony Crawley
p.46 U.S. Junior Open Championship by Karl Heck
p.48 U.S. Interplay Junior Championship by Steve Immitt
p.50 Intercontinental Youth Team Tournament by Beatriz Marinello
p.52 Chess in the Schools by Brian Killigrew
p.53 Chess Profiles: David MacEnulty by Brian Killigrew
p.56 CHESSathon 1998
p.58 U.S. Amateur Championships
p.64 Goldin is Golden at the World Open by Jerry Hanken
p.69 Donny Ariel by Nick Conticello
p.71 U.S. Amateur Playoffs
p.72 Dahlia vs. PBS by Shay Bushinsky
p.73 Alexei Shirov visits N.Y. by Irina Krush

The first 11 stories were about scholastic chess. The next two stories, the U.S. Amateur and the World Open, would have been lead stories in most other issues of CL. Following are some highlights.

Hikaru Nakamura had his photo in the three related stories that started with the 'National High School' championship, as did his brother Asuka. The brothers appeared together in the first photo for 'CHESSathon 1998'. The younger Nakamura, a future GM and U.S. champion, had his own CL cover a few months ago in May 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (May 2023).

Jennifer Shahade was honored as 'Player of the Month' and had her photo at the top of the story for the 'U.S. Junior Open Championship'. From that tournament report:-

The 17-year-old Shahade became the first woman ever to win the U.S. Junior Open in its 53-year history, on July 19 in Ithaca, New York, by scoring 5.5-0.5 in the tournament's Open section. Shahade (2200), the tournament's highest-rated player, won her title the hard way, by facing four of the top five players below her in the standings.

Shahade's brother Gregory (Greg) was also mentioned in 'Player of the Month' and had his photo in the report 'U.S. Interplay Junior Championship'. He finished in the middle of the ten-player event.

Irina Krush, on top of writing the story 'Alexei Shirov visits N.Y.', was pictured in 'Intercontinental Youth Team Tournament', where she led the '14 and under' team that finished well ahead of the three other national teams. For another angle on the Shirov visit, see last year's post Shirov's SmartChess Videos (December 2022).

Cover photographer Brian Killigrew has been mentioned in two previous 'On the Cover' posts this year. His credits for the two 'Chess in the Schools' stories in this issue were for 'Photos and Text'. I expect we'll be seeing more of him in future 'On the Cover' posts.

August 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover'

In last month's post for the 'On the Cover' series, titled July 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (July 2023), I observed, 'we find two foreign-born GMs dominating both covers'. This month is mostly about the World Chess Championship both 50 and 25 years ago.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Shirov to Challenge Kasparov'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Robert Byrne, who finished 3rd at the Leningrad Interzonal and thus qualified for the Candidates' Matches, relaxing after his return to the States. Bulletin [inside], complete story and games next month. Photo by Burt Hochberg.

The bulletin summarized the Interzonal like this:-

At the peak of his strength, Robert Byrne had the greatest success of his career to date by finishing third in the Leningrad Interzonal, one point behind tournament winners Victor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. Korchnoi, Karpov and Byrne have thus qualified for the Candidates' Matches, the next step on the road to the World Championship. The two Russians scored 13.5 points in the 18-player tournament, while Byrne scored 12.5. Korchnoi had 11 wins and one loss (to Rukavina), Karpov had 10 wins and no losses, and Byrne won 9 games, losing only to Korchnoi. [...] A full crosstable and reports will appear in our next issue.

After winning the 1972 U.S. Championship, Byrne made the cover a few months ago in April 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (April 2023). In the post I added a summary of his 'progress in that World Championship cycle [C09]'.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Over the years, thanks to the pioneering efforts of previous editors such as Burt Hochberg, Frank Elley, and Larry Parr, our Senior Art Director Jami L. Anson has a morgue file which includes samples of the work of almost 2,500 cartoonists, illustrators, and artists. And new work comes in every week. Jami has developed quite an eye for spotting "good stuff," and our cover this month is no exception.

Knights on Easter Island (or "Statues that aren't in any travel books.") was one of 13 computer generated works submitted by Jon F. Buckley of Naperville, Illinois. I am sure Mr. Buckley would enjoy hearing your comments and you can reach him by snail-mail at [postal address]; by e-mail at [email address]; or by visiting his website: [URL].

In 2023 you might end up on the wrong side of a privacy case if you publish someone's postal and email addresses in a national magazine. It's still OK to publish a web address, which was given as:-

members.aol.com/jfbuckleyl

I should say more about the cover art, but it will take more time than I have for this post. Maybe later.

As for the Shirov/Kasparov news on the cover, the story inside was titled, 'Shirov Defeats Kramnik (continued)' by GM Leonid Shamkovich. Part I, in the July issue of CL, was titled 'Shirov Defeats Kramnik in WCC Match: Kasparov Next' by GM Leonid Shamkovich. It started,

Two outstanding young grandmasters, Vladimir Kramnik (22) and Alexei Shirov (25), crossed chess swords in the best of ten World Chess Council (WCC) World Championship candidates' match. The match started May 24 and finished June 5 in the small Spanish city of Cazorla, in Andalusia. Alexei Shirov, who won the match with a score of 5.5-3.5, will meet Garry Kasparov in October for the WCC World Championship.

This duel represents great interest for the chess world, in both the sporting and psychological aspects. These great rivals have demonstrated an almost permanent success at the top level in recent years. Kramnik came into the match ranked third in the world, behind only Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, while Shirov was ranked fourth. Each has his own distinctive chess style; Kramnik is a classical virtuoso a la Capablanca, while Shirov is a knight of combinations and attacks in the Mikhail Tal style. No wonder he titled his book of best games Fire on Board.

Going into the match, Kramnik and Shirov have met over-the-board about 20 times, with Shirov leading by an impressive 8-1.

Part II issued a correction to the score: '10.5-8.5 in favor of Shirov'. The Kasparov - Shirov match never took place. For more about its collapse, see 1998-99 World Chess Council ('and more'; m-w.com).

Yes, It's Not About Chess

Is this song about chess? In all the years that I've been posting about The Sociology of Chess (November 2016), I haven't asked that question. Let's first have a listen.

Yes - I've Seen All Good People: Your Move / All Good People (6:55) • '[Published on] Apr 29, 2014'

The song's lyrics are in the video's description, copied here with a few corrections suggested by other sources:-

I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way [sung twice]

Take a straight and stronger course to the corner of your life
Make the white queen run so fast she hasn't got time to make you a wife

'Cause it's time is time in time with your time and
Its news is captured... for the queen to use!

Move me on to any black square
Use me anytime you want
Just remember that the goal
Is for us all to capture all we want

Don't surround yourself with yourself
Move on back two squares
Send an instant comment [karma] to me
Initial it with loving care

'Cause it's time is time in time with your time and
It's news is captured... for the queen to use!

Someone, not a chess player, once asked me the question, 'Is this song about chess?', and I said, 'No'. In retrospect, I'm not sure. Some of the references are to chess -- 'white queen', 'captured'/'capture', 'black square', 'back two squares' -- but they don't make much sense in the context of a real chess game.

There's a web page for just about everything, and a page for a discussion about this song is Yes - I've Seen All Good People: Your Move/All Good People Lyrics (songmeanings.com). One of the comments says,

There are references to chess, but the song is probably more about a life situation using metaphors with chess

I would agree with that. For more about the song, plus links to related topics, see I've Seen All Good People (wikipedia.org). The page informs,

The almost 7-minute song is in two parts; the first, titled "Your Move", was released as a single in 1971 which peaked at number 40 in the US, which helped the group build momentum. The second part is entitled "All Good People".

And, yes, there's a video restricted to the single: Yes - Your Move - single version (youtube.com), with other relevant comments. Chess is well represented in visual art, but not so well in music. What other examples are there?

April 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover'

Continuing last month's 'On the Cover', March 1973 & 1998 (March 2023), let's again follow the wheel of chess history as it was recorded in U.S. chess mazines 50 and 25 years ago. This month we find 'USA all the way'.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Imagine! ... Inside: 1998 USCF Yearbook'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Grandmaster Robert Byrne, who won the 1972 U.S. Championship by out-scoring Reshevsky and Kavalek in a playoff this February. This is the first time Byrne has won this title. Story and games [inside].

The story inside started,

Grandmaster Robert Byrne of Ossining, New York, is the new U.S. Chess Champion. He scored 3-1 by notching one victory and one draw each against Grandmasters Samuel Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek in a play-off at Chicago's LaSalle Hotel February 3-11.

For the CL report on the main tournament, see July 1972 & 1997 'On the Cover' (July 2022). This was the first step in Byrne's unexpected success in that World Championship cycle. For his progress in the cycle, see

• 1972-1975 Zonal Cycle (C09) • '[Zone] 5 New York 1972-04'
• 1973 Leningrad Interzonal Tournament • 'Leningrad, VI, 1973'; Byrne finished third, a point behind Soviet GMs Korchnoi and Karpov
• 1973-75 Candidates Matches • Quarterfinal match 'San Juan, Puerto Rico, I, 1974', lost to Spassky +0-3=3

In the semifinal match, 'Leningrad, IV-V, 1974', Karpov beat Spassky +4-1=6. He then beat Korchnoi +3-2=19 in the final match to earn the right to challenge Fischer in the cycle's title match.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

The Chess In The Schools IMAGINE! tournament was a great success for the kids of New York City, primarily due to the support given by Yoko Ono, shown on our cover with her son, Sean. Brian Killigrew is the photographer and writer. Based in New York city, his work has been featured in newspapers and magazines around the world. A chess neophyte, he will work for chess lessons. E-mail him at ***@aol.com.

FIDE GMA PCA WCC World Champion Garry Kasparov is back in the news, having announced that he will defend his title in October, against either Kramnik or Anand. See [inside] for details and prognostications.

The 'Imagine' tournament report was incorporated into the 20-page USCF Yearbook. The top quarter of each yearbook page had a running story with details of the event plus a photo or two. The story by Brian Killigrew started,

Imagine a 94 ft. blue whale, the largest mammal on earth. Two hundred New York City school children stare, some nervous, some downright scared. A brave nine-year-old moves his hand tentatively, then pulls it back. He steadies himself, then pushes a pawn to e4.

You are at the Chess-in-the-Schools (CIS) First Annual Imagine Tournament held on January 15, 1998, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the museum's Hall of Ocean Life, 209 students, from 41 schools, are here to do battle for team and individual honors in a four round swiss, game 30 tournament.

The accompanying photo was captioned,

Overhead view of 1st Annual Imagine Tournament held in the Hall of Ocean Life. Above, right corner, is a small part of the 94 foot blue whale. • All photos by Brian Killigrew

As for 'First Annual' / '1st Annual', that will take more effort to research. I'll try to tackle that some other time.

In the first paragraph, did I say, 'USA all the way'? The second part of the introduction to the April 1998 'On the Cover' mentioned news of Kasparov's non-FIDE World Championship title; see also the letter from Karpov. I'll come back to that later, probably on my World Championship blog.

TCEC S24 DivP Finishing; Stockfish Wins CCC20 Blitz Final

In the previous fortnightly post, TCEC S24 DivP, CCC20 Blitz Final : Both Underway (March 2023), the intrepid sponsors of the chess world's leading engine vs. engine competitions, the TCEC and the CCC, were both conducting important contests. Here's a summary of that post:-

TCEC: With two rounds completed in the eight round Premier Division (DivP), KomodoDragon, LCZero, and Stockfish are significantly ahead of the other five engines. • CCC: Lc0 beat Dragon by 32 points in the 500-game 'Challenger Match', and is currently trailing Stockfish by 16 points after a sixth of the 500-game 'Final Match' has been played.

The TCEC is still running S24 DivP, but the CCC is moving on. Here's the current status of both platforms:-

TCEC: DivP is a few games away from its finish. Stockfish is a point ahead of LCZero, which has a big lead over KomodoDragon. That means Stockfish will meet LCZero in the final match (aka Superfinal, aka Sufi), right? No, wrong.

That's the way TCEC organized its flagship league event through S23; see TCEC S23 Sufi, CCC19 Rapid : Nearing the Finish (November 2022), for the previous season. For this season the organizers have organized the new 'DivP Playoff':-

!divpplayoff • The top 4 of DivP face each other to determine who goes to SuFi 24.

Ethereal is currently in fourth place, a point ahead of Berserk. The two engines are scheduled to meet in one of the last games of DivP, so anything is possible.

CCC: In the previous post, 'S24 DivP, CCC20 Blitz Final', I also calculated,

Lc0 is currently trailing Stockfish by 16 points after a sixth of the 500-game 'Final Match' has been played. This extrapolates to a difference of nearly 100 points when the match will have finished.

The final score was Stockfish over Lc0 by 293.0-207.0, making Stockfish the winner of the 'CCC20 Blitz Final'. The site is currently conducting another OpenBench event...

!now • OpenBench Interlude #8 -- All engines except Laser [Crashing :( ] and 4ku [Too weak :( ]

...then plans...

!next • CCC20 Rapid: Newcomers

In previous posts, I've mentioned OpenBench several times in passing. It's high time I devoted an off-week post to the concept. Maybe next week...

[For further information from the various stakeholders in the engine-to-engine events, see the tab 'TCEC/CCC Links' at the top of this page. • NB: Leela = LC0 = LCzero; Dragon = KomodoDragon]

Cheating for all Ages

For the last few weeks I've been running a weekly series on Chess.com's Game Review Tools (February 2023). I'll continue with Chess.com, but change the focus. That post mentioned,

[Chess.com] has a good reputation for vigorously enforcing its no-engine policy, even if it leads to controversial decisions.

I'll start with a summary of past posts on this blog that dealt with various aspects of cheating. It's a real mixed bag. Posts marked '(*)' featured Chess.com.

Recent months have seen heavy media interest in the so-called Niemann affair. The entire discussion gets a '(*)' because Chess.com played a leading role.

• 2022-09-08: Chess Players Behaving Very, Very Badly
• 2022-09-19: Talkchess Talks Current Topics
• 2022-09-29: Cheating Mania
• 2022-10-27: Chess960 Mania
• 2022-11-24: Steamin' Niemann
• 2022-11-29: Disappearing Yahoos
• 2022-12-06: How Many for Carlsen? For Niemann?
• 2023-01-31: First Yahoos of 2023
• 2023-02-12: 'The Von Niemann Probe'

Another recent, recurring topic has been the controversy surrounding the 1997 match Kasparov vs. IBM's Deep Blue (m-w.com). It provided some precedent for the Niemann affair.

• 2019-07-28: The World Was Watching • 'Garry insisted that IBM cheated.'
• 2022-05-16: 25 Years Ago in Chess History
• 2022-09-25: 'The Root of All Evil'?
• 2022-10-17: 'One Move In, One Move Out'

The rest of the posts are listed in unfiltered, reverse chronological order.

• 2022-01-24: Correspondence Forums in the 2000s
• 2021-03-30: The Yahoos' Database Flags Cheating (*)
• 2020-08-28: Update on Online Chess Events (*) • 'Activity for the three main [online play] sites has declined, reflecting perhaps the gradual lifting of coronavirus lockdowns or perhaps the frustration of interminable cheating scandals.'
• 2020-05-10: An Influential Organization (*)
• 2020-02-28: FIDE's Media and Fair Play Commissions 2019
• 2020-02-07: Spectating the 90th FIDE Congress?
• 2019-07-30: A Cheating Yahoo • Igors Rausis
• 2019-01-24: FIDE's Ethics Commission 2018
• 2019-01-17: FIDE's 'Anti-Cheating' / 'Fair Play' Commission 2018
• 2018-01-18: FIDE's Ethics Commission 2017
• 2018-01-04: FIDE's Anti-Cheating Commission 2017
• 2017-03-31: PRO Chess League (*)
• 2016-12-27: FIDE's Anti-Cheating Commission 2016
• 2016-12-20: FIDE's Journalist Commission 2016
• 2016-04-14: ACP Survey 2016 - Results
• 2015-12-10: FIDE Anti-Cheating Guidelines
• 2015-12-03: FIDE Anti-Cheating Proposal
• 2015-11-26: Ethics in Chess Politics - Stories
• 2015-11-24: Ethics in Chess Politics - Cases
• 2015-11-10: Millionaire Open II - Chess Life
• 2015-08-18: 2015 CJA Awards
• 2014-10-09: Winter's 'Unsolved Chess Mysteries'
• 2014-06-10: The 'No Cheating' Jigsaw Puzzle • 'Two essays on one of the hottest subjects in chess have appeared this month'
• 2013-12-12: Ethics and Cheating
• 2013-04-26: Kramnik on the Unification Match
• 2012-10-25: Feller, Rybka, Arbiters, and More
• 2012-10-08: Most 'HTTP 404' Are External Errors
• 2011-01-18: 'We Have to Take Him as He Is'
• 2010-01-12: Scientific American's Computer Chess
• 2007-01-25: An Amazing Coincidence
• 2006-12-08: The Machine Sees Further Ahead

The list needs a lot more work. I'll fill in some of the blanks as I continue with the Chess.com series.

March 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover'

Another month means another look at U.S. chess 50 and 25 years ago. The tags for last month's post, February 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (February 2023) -- 'Books/Mags, Photos, USchess, WCC' -- apply equally well to this month.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Karpov Reigns Supreme as FIDE World Champion!'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

I. A. (Al) Horowitz, who died in January. Tributes to this irreplaceable man begin [inside]. Photo courtesy of New York Times [NYT].

The tributes started with five pages headed,

FAREWELL TO A LEGEND
I. A. Horowitz
November 15, 1907 — January 18, 1973

The first tribute was by USCF Executive Director Ed Edmondson. It started,

The 1930's were glorious years for USA chess. Young masters were on the rise; they played exciting, stimulating games in tournaments such as the U.S. Open and the U.S. Championship; our teams swept to victory in four consecutive Chess Olympiads; and, in 1933, a great new American chess magazine was born.

It was a time for living legends. Just look at our line-up in the Chess Olympiad (World Team Championship), Stockholm 1937: Reshevsky, Fine, Kashdan, Marshall, and Horowitz. Giants, every one. But to me, a high school student then just beginning to explore the delights of tournament chess, none loomed larger than I. A. (Al) Horowitz. He was everywhere -- at the Olympiads, the U.S. Opens, the U.S. Championships; crisscrossing the nation (with occasional stops in my home town of Rochester) on one simultaneous exhibition tour after another; and coming into my home every month as editor of CHESS REVIEW.

Other tributes were by GMs William Lombardy, Isaac Kashdan, and Arnold Denker; CL&R's Jack Straley Battell and Burt Hochberg; and the NYT's John Devlin. The first photo showed Horowitz playing Petrosian in the USSR-USA match, Moscow 1955.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

The issue's introduction, titled 'On the Cover' of course, was a natural continuation of the intro to the February 1998 issue of CL, copied verbatim in last month's post. See that post for links to the WCC events mentioned below.

Elizabeth Karnazes shot the cover photo of Anatoly Karpov just after he successfully defended his FIDE World Championship title in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Karpov will be appearing at the National Open in Las Vegas, March 28-29, to give a 30-board simultaneous exhibition. If you can get to Las Vegas a day early, organizer Al Losoff will be auctioning off one board to the highest bidder. Details [inside].

The rumor mills are working overtime. It is rumored that Garry Kasparov will finally defend his PCA World Championship title in the closing months of 1998. The challenger will come from a group of grandmasters selected by Kasparov. Karpov will not be invited. So much for a unification match.

And FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has announced plans to make the knockout world championship an annual affair. Las Vegas is high on the list of possible sites for 1998.

Every one of those paragraphs would make a good start for a follow-up post, but there is only so much time for chess.

Chess in the Artist's Studio

The first Sunday of the month means a new post in the long-running series Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010). The priority generally goes to artwork, where -- if you don't count The Spanish Forger Liked Chess (September 2022) -- the previous post was A Wizard or a God? (August 2022).

This month I had three interesting paintings to choose from, so I went with the one I liked most. Titled, 'Henri Dillon (1851-1909) signed French oil on canvas - chess game interior', it sold for GBP 1,850.00 ('Approximately US $2,086.80' according to eBay) after 27 bids from 12 bidders.

The description said,

Henri Patrice Dillon (1851-1909)

A very beautiful and atmospheric oil by Henri Patrice Dillon the French painter who was born in San Francisco but moved to France to paint. This work shows too men in an intense game of chess in a smoky interior -- one of the men is puffing on a pipe and the smoke has filled the whole room. In the background a woman watches. The walls are adorned with sculptures and paintings.

Title: "The Chess Game" • Signature: Signed lower right • Medium: Oil on original canvas • Size: c. 18 x 22 inches unframed • Condition: Unlined original canvas -- some old repairs and retouchings

As for 'an intense game of chess', the fellow on the right appears to be sleeping. The setting looks like an artist's studio. The start of the artist's French Wikipédia page, Henri Patrice Dillon (fr.wikipedia.org), translates to:-

Henri Patrice Dillon, known as "H. P. Dillon", born November 28, 1850 in San Francisco, and died May 16, 1909 in Paris, was a French painter, illustrator and lithographer of Irish origin, who made a career in the Paris of la Belle Époque.

As for the other two 'interesting paintings' for the month, I tried to find them elsewhere on the web, but failed. This is usually a straightforward process and I'm sure I've seen one of the paintings, by Rodolfo Tarallo, several times before. Has something changed?